Rush Limbaugh's Ultimate Betrayal of His Audience

The Atlantic ^ | CONOR FRIEDERSDORF

[ToxicMich]

For almost a decade, I’ve been angrily documenting the way that many right-wing talk-radio hosts betray the rank-and-file conservatives who trust them for information. My late grandmother was one of those people. She deserved better than she got. With huge platforms and massive audiences, successful hosts ought to take more care than the average person to be truthful and avoid misinforming listeners. Yet they are egregiously careless on some days and willfully misleading on others.

And that matters, as we’ll come to see.

[tgusa]

I haven’t listened to more than 7 consecutive minutes of Rush for about 10 years.

[ToxicMich]

Rush Limbaugh: Well, in the first place, I don’t think Trump has actually changed that much from what he said. And I’m also not aware that he told every Republican that they had to agree with him or else whatever he was going to do to them…

Rick: With all due respect, Rush, on Chuck Todd’s show, he specifically said, when asked the question, “You mean you’re going to rip the families apart?”

He said, “No, I’m not going to rip the families apart, they all have to go, even the U.S. citizen children.”

He then got into the middle of the debate, and the argument between Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, when Ted wanted legalization and Marco wanted citizenship as part of a comprehensive plan. He said that they were both wrong, that they were both being absurd, that they all had to go “or we don’t have a nation of laws.” Come on! You were watching the debates as well as the rest of us were. You know exactly what he said and you know exactly the way he ridiculed everybody on that stage.

Rush Limbaugh: Yeah, well I guess the difference is—well not the difference, I guess the thing is, this is gonna enrage you. You know, I could choose a path here to try to mollify you, but I never took him seriously on this!

[bert]

Atlantic is the enemy and should not be posted

[Gaffer]

I really don’t even make a point to listening to him anymore. He just isn’t in my realm of caring, now.

[harpu]

"...he is being an ass to his audience?"

You have two solutions to your concern;
1) Don't listen to Rush - Period! or...
2) Listen to Rush but go ahead and vote for the Hildabeast because - if you have to ask if Rush 'is being an ass!' then you're sittin' in the wrong pew.

[relictele]

Sadly, the show has become pure shtick. A listing of the problems would be long but among the lowlights:

1) Repeating campaign stories from 2004 (Kerry) and even 1980 (Kennedy). It’s 2016. Let’s focus on the now.

2) Constant chattering to the staff. They are off air 21 hrs per day, as Rush often notes. Can’t they interact in those hours instead of on-air time?

3) THAT DAMNED LASER PRINTER. I get it. The poor bugger is deaf. The cochlear implants don’t transmit certain frequencies. But why is the printer constantly running during on-air segments? Can’t ‘show prep’ and ‘stack of stuff’ be compiled before going to air? Mr Apple Corporation has a roomful of state of the art computers with huge screens. Why is hard copy even necessary? Why won’t anyone in an engineering capacity tell him that the noise is frequent and very audible? Why can’t the printer be placed outside the studio?

[topspinr]

‘Just listen to him here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xS5RAQ0198';

So you’re a supporter after all.

[ExTxMarine]

Rush Limbaugh has never masqueraded as a newsman. He’s a polemicist, an entertainer. Meanwhile, scum-organs like the Washington Post and CBS spew their lies and half-truths daily under the mask of “news.”

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!!

BTT and deserves repeating!!

[Mr. Douglas]

I think Rush is part of the establishment in the sense that he doesn’t want “too much” change, “too fast”. And, truth be told, the more “crazy” politicians there are to complain about, the better for him. So you could say that, for the sake of his show, he WANTS the bad guys to win, but not be seen as their cheeleader.

I get this from what he said when Bill Clinton won in 1992, and I paraphrase the conversation:
Interviewer: So, Rush, now that Clinton’s won, are you through in radio?
Rush: Are you kidding! I’ve got four years of EXCELLENT material to comment on. This will be a huge boost for my show?

i.e. the crazier the political climate, the more Rush has to talk about that is truly interesting.

The problem is that he becomes a bit like the MSM. He NEEDS the crazy stuff to be going on to keep his listenership high. A sane political environment is just not that interesting.

[bigbob]

Nothing wrong with listening to talk radio for entertainment. Just realize it isn’t there to convey objective information, but as a platform for making money. View it the same way we view ads on Google and there’s no problem.

[RedWulf]

I see that Hillary’s paid trolls are still trying to undermine Trump.

[gr8eman]

Regardless, this is like Karl Marx criticizing Thomas Jefferson for initially rejecting the constitution. The author has no standing whatsoever on the subject, everyone knows it, so why did he write the missive?!

[Mr. Douglas]

I see what you did there. ;-)

Commercials make it almost not worth it.

I listen to some of Michael Medved on my way home from work (90 minute drive). Whenever he says, “meanwhile, this just came in from...” I immediately turn the channel. It’s an ad about some pain reliever.

[poobear]

Many questions. Little explanations. Not the 90’s anymore.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Thank you for the text.

‘Rush Limbaugh: Yeah, well I guess the difference is—well not the difference, I guess the thing is, this is gonna enrage you. You know, I could choose a path here to try to mollify you, but I never took him seriously on this!’

Rush also said yesterday that Trump takes the border seriously. The specifics were not the point essentially, that’s what Rush said. I assume Rush was simply saying that he did not take the ‘touchback’ aspect seriously. A lot of wiggle room for Trump to hash out after the election.

Like I posted earlier, Rush favored Cruz, but Ted’s campaign showed signs of collapse as early as South Carolina.

What was Rush supposed to do at that point? Torpedo the only possible chance for us to unite behind one candidate?

[Georgia Girl 2]

Blah, blah, blah goes the Atlantic.

[Vision Thing]

Rush is Kaepernicking his career.

[mia]

Oh for heaven’s sake, Rush is on our side. I have listened to him faithfully for 20 years. He was the voice of sanity I found twenty years ago when I “woke-up” from the sleep induced propaganda of the left media. He tells it like it is, whether you like it or not and, makes you think for yourself instead of being brain washed by the leftist media. You can agree or not with his information, but you are always left thinking for yourself.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Trump Spokesperson Says Obama Invaded Afghanistan. He Didn’t
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3459237/posts

[I wonder who posted that Huffpo piece.]

[maggief]

I’m surprised this guy is still around.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3391220/posts?page=89#89

To: Forgotten Amendments
I never pray. I will make an exception on this one. I will pray with you. Trump is an embarrassment for this nation. If you support him in this race, you are a f%#&ing moron.
89 posted on February 1, 2016 at 10:40:23 AM CST by ToxicMich